I am applying for a job...well you do have to eat sometimes. So I needed to show a bit of what we can do, so I  whipped this together from some shots I have  done already... maybe it  might inspire you.

That's great. It's interesting to see the before and after. 

Julie

It is amazing what you can do with a green screen!

It is amazing what you can do with a green screen!

It's amazing what you can do without a green screen!

Was that first shot all roto work? Also, did you get many odd stares from people passing by?

Aaron, as the shot had no camera movement I was able to grab some stills from various frames to make up the plate without me in it, then grabbed some frames from a trip we did down to the edge of the Amazon once, to make up the background replacement, and then in 'Gimp' (free graphics program) composited them, then yes, roto/animated masked where necessary. The castle shot was straight keying, with tracking for the castle. Movement of me was just eyeballed. The sky where the castle is was blown out enough to key on the white sky. The shot of me walking down the hill was tricky to get the grass to key on top of me. Fortunately the grass was lighter than the background vegetation, and an extra layer keyed on top. My staff slides on the ground and there is a hairline evident in the key, But this was only a practice shot and most likely will not be used. The beach/bird shot, the bird was from an SD shot, which when sized up gave me just enough blur to look good. The lizard door shot was all keying, but interestingly the grass over it was made up of just one clump of grass I found a few blocks from our home.The original shot was just me and the door. And the caves had some patches I think to cover  where the paper showed. We will be doing lots of patching  in this movie as we are right in the middle of the city as you  saw in the first shot. And yes, we got lots of stares,and sometimes  requests for photos, and the police usually turned up to check us out, on most shoots. Once we were told by them that we were not allowed to film in front of a building, until we got permission. I think I prefer studio shooting with puppets.

Nicely done.

Just watched the green screen video - great work! I'm utterly jealous of the abilities of so many people here, special effects and camera work have never been my forte.

Good to see Philip back at home. And " I feel some tutorials coming on" is music to my ears.

Thanks Gary. I must say though, that getting back has taken more effort, to settle back in than expected, but I am getting my brain around things slowly. I am sorting huge amounts of things digital and non digital, and getting there slowly and methodically. I still have all the footage of  Frogo's adventures in New Zealand to go through. I had a solid six weeks  doing repairs on our house and shifting back in, then there was Christmas... and have you ever sorted through 15 years worth of digital backups? Its like shifting a highrise office block into another one, the next street over. Anyhow...we will see how much we can get around to doing. Have a great 2014.

Well...the next installment of  Frogo´s Search For The Donut. You get to see what my two lovely daughters look like. Obviously one is the Bride, and the other, the first Bridesmaid.